Patna: At the time when the entire world is celebrating Anti Corruption Day today, 62 per cent of countries are found to be at high risk of defence and security corruption index.
According to the latest Government Defence Integrity Index (GDI) prepared by Transparency International Defence and Security, nearly two-thirds of countries face a high the critical risk of
corruption in their defence and security sectors.
The report said that the countries that score poorly in the GDI had weak or non-existent safeguards against defence sector corruption and were more likely to experience conflict, instability, and human rights abuses.
The report attributes an increase in the military spending globally for it and stated that the global military spending has increased to some 2 trillion dollars annually, fuelling the scale and opportunity for corruption.
According to the report, 62 per cent of countries are at high to the critical risk of defence sector corruption across all world regions. The G 20 countries are also in this group.
Sudan with a score of 5 against 100 points has been found to be the worst performer whereas New Zealand tops the Index with a score of 85/100.
Almost every country scored poorly in terms of its safeguards against corruption in military operations, the report added that the average score was s just 16/100 because most countries lack anti-corruption as a core pillar of their mission planning.
The report stated that 49 per cent of global arms imports were sold to counties facing a high to critical risk of defence corruption.
The Director of Transparency International Defence and Security Programme Natalie Hogg said in the report that most defence and security sectors around the world lack essential safeguards against corruption.
He further observed that Defence sector corruption undermines defence forces, weakening their ability to provide security to citizens, secure national borders and bring about peace.
